Food from across the Adriatic

If you’re not sure what type of meal is typically Croatian, think meat and seafood. Seafood is a staple on most menus and you can generally be guaranteed that it’s fresh from the Adriatic. Whether it’s squid or grilled fish or mussels, there’s something for every seafood connoiseur in Croatia and if a menu doesn’t have fish on it there’s something…fishy. Is the restaurant typically Croatian? Probably not. But if seafood isn’t your thing you might have to look to what normally makes up the other half of the menu…Italian-themed cuisine.

Croatia is located right across the sea from Italy, so it should come as no surprise that pasta and pizza are staples on most restaurants. On visiting the tourist hotspots around Croatia, namely Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik and Pula, the menus will generally comprise of a mixture of both Italian fusion-style food and seafood.

Our record for pizza was three times in one day (we got drunk and ordered more, what can I say?), but who wants to see photos of pizza? I know what you’re really after. What type of awesome food can you get in Croatia?

Well, for starters, check out this amazing Beef Tagliata salad with flatbread from Hvar. Is your mouth watering yet? Tagliata is an Italian-style meal where the beef is incredibly rare to the point where it’s almost blue, as well as being extremely flavourful.

LOOK AT IT!

Next we’ve got this amazing squid ink risotto with squid. This meal was absolutely huge and I couldn’t finish it all, but the flavour was spot on and the rice was perfectly cooked.

Some sardines in Pula…

Octopus salad in Split…

Some amazing squid with broccoli and potato in Dubrovnik…

And these awesome mussels from Dubrovnik…

Croatian food is excellent, and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise they’re actually insane. Their menus are bursting with flavour and delicious to the max. Portion sizes are generally super generous and every so often you’ll find a hidden gem. Case in point…

In Hvar, we visited a tiny cafe called Fig owned by Jeff, one of the three owners of our hostel. We weren’t expecting much, to be honest, and had been told the food was Mexican themed. But on arrival, we had major food envy of some of the meals around the cafe and ordered a salad flatbread each. Mine was pear, walnuts, blue cheese drizzled with the perfect amount of balsamic. A mountain of rocket (arugula) was piled on top of oil brushed, toasted flatbread. If that wasn’t the perfect brunch, I’m not sure what was! Perhaps not the most typically Croatian meal but delicious nonetheless!

Croatia pretty much has food to suit any taste and I love it. However, Croatia is also not cheap. My budget for this trip was blown right out of the water and that was mainly due to the price of food and drinks. Try and avoid the main tourist strips/squares and in Dubrovnik take a water bottle and refill it at the cold water fountains around the city. My final piece of advice would be to try and find cafes and restaurants with innovative and original menus. You’ll find a lot of places have identical menus and it gets repetitive…so see what you can find! You won’t be disappointed with Croatian food at all!